Chapter 14
FOURTEEN
Bex comes in early and finds me in my production room, listening to a new singer Elle found. She brought him to Beaumont to lay down a track and asked me to air it this week during the show.
“Good morning,” she says after I take off my headphones. She motions for me to follow her out of the room. In the hall, she hands me a sheet of numbers.
“What’s this?”
“We’re growing faster than I expected.”
“That’s because I’m charismatic.”
Bex rolls her eyes. I think she’s tired of me already. “It’s because of you, yes. But let’s not forget, I had the idea.”
I nod because yes, she’s without a doubt, the brains behind all of this. The show’s outgrowing the room. “I’ll be serious now.”
“Thanks. As I was saying, we’re growing and growth is great, but I can’t keep up. We are getting too many calls in our time block, and the station is getting calls when you’re not on the air, which is causing them more work.”
“So, what are you suggesting?”
“We launch our own internet radio station.” Her words come out in a jumbled mess, but I hear them loud and clear. Bex grimaces and hunches her shoulders.
“Like satellite radio?”
She nods and bites her lower lip.
I hand the papers back to her without looking at any of the data. “Make it happen. Call it 4225 West. You have our entire catalog. Elle will give you whatever. Use my phone to call my friends. I’ll even get Harrison and JD down here to help.”
“Are you serious?”
“I am. Whatever you need.”
“Space,” she says before I can walk away. “We need more space. I want to give Paige her own office, where she can film for FMG Records, do her editing. And I’d like to hire an assistant producer to help with the calls.”
I nod and hold my finger up to tell her I’ll be right back. I peek my head into the studio and catch Elle’s attention. “Is there anything going in next door yet?”
She shakes her head. “Not that I know of. I don’t think it’s been shown in months.”
“How do you feel about expanding?”
“God yes,” she says. “Can we knock out the wall and put in glass? I think people would love to see what we’re doing.”
“That means I can’t pick my ass or nose.”
Elle scrunches her face. “Good. I get enough of that at home with Ben and the boys.”
I laugh. “I’m giving Bex the go ahead, get with her and tell her what you need, want, and all that shit. Order new equipment if we need it.”
“Love you, Uncle Liam,” she says as I close the door.
Bex is in the hall, pacing. “Here’s the deal, the space next to us is empty, and I believe the one on the end is as well. Use it. Work with Elle. Do what you need to do to make us successful.”
She launches herself into my arms. “Thank you, thank you.”
“Now, I wanted to talk to you about your living arrangements. Do you intend to stay in Beaumont or go back to New York and do this remotely?”
“Honestly, I’m loving it here.”
I can’t keep the smile off my face. “Stop by Whimsicality later today and talk to my wife. She handles most everything with our properties. I think the lofts on the top floor of this building are close to being done with renovations. As far as I know, she hasn’t rented them.
That’s if you want to live and work in the same building. ”
“And not have to drive to work, sign me up. I’ll touch base with her today.”
“And when you do, please bring me some lunch,” I say as I head down the hall toward my office. I close the door, set my phone on the stand, and kick my feet up onto my desk. Harrison answers first.
“My brother. Why in the fuck are you still there when your family is here?”
“Peace and quiet,” he says. “Nap time is plug into Katelyn time. I don’t know what has gotten into her, but on the beach, in the garage on my bike, in the kitchen, shower, laundry room. If I didn’t know any better, I’d swear she was trying to get pregnant.”
“Is she?” I can’t imagine starting over at our age. Not that we’re old . . . fuck it, we are old.
“Nah, hormones. She wants the D, I give it. She freaking straddled me while I was playing drums the other day. Told me to keep playing. Hardest fucking thing I’ve ever had to do.”
“Okay, something’s in the water. Josie and I reenacted prom night in my truck the other night. I’m not complaining.”
Harrison laughs. “Man, where the fuck is JD? We’re gossiping like schoolgirls and he’s not on.”
“Probably with Jenna doing exactly what we’re gossiping about.”
“When did this become our lives?”
More laughter. “When we became parents because back then it was a quickie here and there. For a while I was able to worship my woman, give every inch of her fine body the attention it deserves, but now, fucking nap time.”
Just then Oliver pulls Harrison’s phone from him and looks at the camera.
“Hey, Ollie. Tell your dad you want to come see Uncle Liam.”
“Go E em house,” he says, handing the phone back to Harrison. It’s close enough for my liking.
“Toddlers.” Harrison rolls his eyes affectionately.
“Seriously though. Are you coming out or what?”
“Yeah, the kids were here last week. Elle’s got a new musician she’s working with, so it’ll be a bit before she gets back here.”
“He’s here now,” I tell him. “He’s good.”
“And Peyton called, added the waterworks. Katelyn’s packing now.”
I pump my fist in the air. “Staying at Michael’s?”
“Nope, your house. We found a house and are likely putting an offer in on it.”
“No way, really?”
He smiles. “Yeah, it’s on the outskirts. Has a nice piece of land and Katelyn said I can put in a wave pool so I can still surf. Winters here though. I’m too old for that cold shit.”
I don’t blame him. I do miss living in Los Angeles during the winter. Maybe once Paige graduates, Josie and I can become snowbirds.
“Listen, the reason I called is business—”
“Oh, not to discuss our sex lives?”
“No and if you tell Katelyn, I’ll hurt you, brother.”
“Don’t worry, she’d cut my dick off if she knew. So, what’s up?”
I fill him in with the creation of the radio station, how there’s a place for him here. As well as JD. We get into the nitty gritty of the expansion, how the show’s going, and how I never thought this would do very well.
“We catch it, occasionally. Mostly we see the stuff Paige posts. You do well with the callers.”
“We could create one for you or you could fill in.”
“I’m down for filling it,” he says.
We chat for a few more minutes, and then I decide to group text all of this to JD when we hang up. He’s a busy dad these days, so I’m not surprised when he doesn’t answer. For all we know, he could be out of the country.
From my office, I have a great view of downtown.
I can see the park, Josie’s café and shop, and the other businesses.
There are workers in the park, replacing the summer flowers with mums. Someone sweeps the path, picks up garbage, and cuts the grass.
We paid for the park revitalization because it’s the center point of our downtown space and I wanted kids to have a clean, safe place to play.
Seeing the sidewalk full of people brings a smile to my face. Watching Bex enter the café puts a shit eating grin there because lunch, made by my wife, makes for the best kind of day.
Paige has a map now, pinned over her clip station, push-pins stuck in every town a caller’s phoned from, and lately the pins have started crossing state lines. Two from across the river. One four hundred miles south. I stare at the board, spotting Beaumont. No one from here or the surrounding area.
No Sterling.
Tonight every slot on the board is lit before I’ve got the cans on.
Bex screens on the fly, holding the heavy calls for the back half and feeding me the light ones to open. I don’t see half of what she catches before it reaches me, and whatever doesn’t make air, she’s got her reasons. I’ve learned not to ask.
A couple of clips cleared a million views this week, both of them of me getting choked up on the air. Paige says the algorithm rewards a man crying. “Nobody shares the advice, Dad. They share you losing it. Cry more.” She’s built me a second career out of my own raw nerves.
The light goes red.
“Evening. This is The Love Line with Liam. Tell me what’s on your mind.”
First voice is a woman, exasperated and fond at the same time.
“My husband retired in the spring and he has not left my side since. He follows me from room to room. He reorganized my spice rack, the laundry room, every cabinet in the kitchen. This morning he asked me where I was going. I was going to the bathroom. The bathroom! I can’t even pee in peace. Oh crap, can I say that on the radio?”
I’m laughing before she finishes. “How long were you married before he retired?”
“Thirty-one years.”
“And you got thirty-one good years out of the man partly because he had somewhere else to be all day. You married him, ma’am. Not his schedule. He needs a hobby, and he needs it yesterday. Get that man a workshop or a fishing boat or a part-time anything before one of you ends up on the news.”
A man whose mother-in-law moved in “temporarily” back in the spring. A bride three weeks out, two families at war over the seating chart. A woman whose teenage son won’t come out of his room. I move through each of them with Bex feeding me the next light before I’ve closed the last.
A young guy, nervous, the words coming fast. “I’ve got a girlfriend. Six months. Except we’ve never actually met. She’s long distance. We talk every night, hours sometimes, but every time we plan to meet up, something comes up on her end.”
“Something always comes up.”
“…Yeah.”